Observation
The ‘Indo-Pacific’ — the region comprising the Indian and Pacific Oceans and connecting seas, has become a strong theme of Australian foreign policy in recent years, and a new question this year sought to probe Australians’ understanding of this concept. Respondents were presented with a list of five options — ‘Indo-Pacific’, ‘Asia’, ‘the West’, ‘Oceania’, and ‘not part of anywhere’ — and asked to select up to three where Australia belonged. The majority (62%) select Oceania. A sizeable minority (38%) select the Indo-Pacific. One in three (32%) say Australia belongs to the West, while just 21% say Australia belongs to Asia. One in ten Australians (11%) says Australia is ‘not part of anywhere’.